


Secret Santa

by QueenoftheHobbits



Series: Soft Thighs Series [64]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, overweight reader, plus size reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-02 05:54:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8653384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenoftheHobbits/pseuds/QueenoftheHobbits
Summary: Being Bucky’s secret Santa is actually really hard, what do you get a man like that for Christmas?





	

“Yourself.”

“Tony...” You rolled your eyes at the man who was still working on some random contraption that he’d probably blow up at some point. Hence the distance you always kept from him while in his workshop. The last thing you needed was to get blown up by malfunctioning inventions.

“What? Wrap yourself up in a bow and i’m sure he’d be happy to have you for Christmas.” You couldn’t ever imagine doing that, it wasn’t that you weren’t comfortable in your body (because after years of work you were) but the idea of wrapping yourself up in ribbon for your ‘friend’ at Christmas was just...it was more than a little flustering or embarrassing or perhaps both. 

“I’m not giving myself to Bucky as his Christmas present, okay?” Tony wasn’t any help you realised rather quickly. You had gone to him to ask for advice on what to get Bucky for Christmas, you were his secret Santa and you had to get him something. But what do you get a man who hasn’t celebrated Christmas in years? Who’s lost so much? All the things you can think of seem so trivial...so stupid compared to everything he’s gone through...

“Thanks...for the help.” You leave Tony to ask others, surely someone will have some idea of what to get him for Christmas?

Wanda suggests modern sweets, things he’s never tasted before. You think that seems too impersonal to give to him for his first Christmas. It feels like something your great aunt would do after not seeing you for 10 years. Thor suggests coffee, he really loves the stuff, but you’re sure that that would be the worst present Bucky could probably receive on Christmas day. Bruce suggests something a little more meaningful, something related to the Commandos but you’re not sure if that’s too personal to his past for him to deal with that. 

You go around talking to everyone, except Steve who was away (the one person you could actually get a decent answer out of) before you sit down with a warm drink and think. What would be meaningful? What would be enough? What would be something that he could keep and treasure...

And then you realise. He needs memories, has some, he’s made new ones with you and the others, but he’s always so scared of forgetting them...a scrapbook. Photos, little anecdotes wrapped up in a pretty package, something that has your time and effort in it, something that he can flick through the pages of when he’s feeling weak, feeling memories slip away or simply when he’s feeling nostalgic. Something you can say you worked hard to make, that’s meaningful without being sad or upsetting. 

It takes you a while really to do it. You collect all the little pieces, the small bits to stick onto pages, the perfectly printed photographs, and the scripted captions. You spend a while putting it together, working to make sure every page is as perfect as you can get it to be. There was surprisingly less glitter than you thought you’d put into it, you restrained yourself against the glitter glue and overdoing the pages. Bucky was a man of simple taste that much was clear, he wasn’t in your face or gaudy and you wanted the scrapbook to reflect who he was as much as the memories he made. 

Some of the pages had the first few photos ever taken of him post the Winter Soldier ordeal, where his smile is awkward and he’s not sure how to act around you all or the camera itself. Others are newer, photos that show how comfortable he’s become, that show his arm around your thick waist, or him laughing with Steve easily. There are even pictures from Tony's parties where he’s awkwardly dressed in a suit that he looks like he might bust out of. 

You wrap it up in a box and some wrapping paper that has little reindeer on it, a red ribbon is wound around the box and a card placed on top. It’s so pretty and perfect it almost hurts because it shows just how much effort you put in for Bucky...because you always do. You care about him more than perhaps you’d be willing to admit. If anyone had asked you would have said he was simply a friend, just a friend, but he wasn’t, or he was but you didn’t feel like friendly feelings for him. You wouldn’t go so far as to say love, but you were attracted to him, the type of attraction that had you missing the times he’d knock on your door in the morning, the type that had you admiring his features and catching yourself before anyone else noticed, the type where you stole his shirts just because they smelt like him and told him some lie about them being more comfortable than your own. 

When Christmas morning came Tony woke everyone up and ushered you all to the living area, the tree was big and brightly decorated (you’d all pitched in) and there was a decent number of presents under the tree, some better wrapped than others. You all collected your presents in little piles and started with the ones that weren’t Secret Santa presents, before moving onto the more mysterious of the presents. 

Natasha received a knife, very pretty, but also very practical and very much her type of thing. You received a book you’d been wanting for ages but never got around to buying. Eventually the only present left to be opened was Bucky’s. 

Everyone watched him, watched him twist it and turn it, stare at it, a furrow on his brow before he carefully started opening it. It was sweet the way he tried not to rip the wrapping paper, the way he wanted to keep it in tact. There were nerves on your end that he wouldn’t like the present even if he didn’t know it was from you.

“Oh” You watched him, watched the careful way he turned through the pages, the affection that filled his eyes because it was obvious he liked the present, that it meant a lot to him and you had never felt more relieved because Bucky deserved a present that he liked...and it had been so terribly nerve wrecking to figure something out for him. You wanted to do good and it seemed that you had. “Who?”

“You’re not allowed to know that, frosty...that’s why it’s called Secret Santa” Tony butted in and you figured that perhaps you could get Bucky alone later and tell him because it seemed unfair to keep it from him and also because part of you wanted him to know it was from you.

The rest of the day was typical Christmas with Tony Stark; a massive meal, stupid cracker jokes, some terrible family games, and enough alcohol to knock Natasha out and she had an amazing tolerance for alcohol...at the end of it you waited until everyone had gone to bed before knocking on Bucky’s door. 

“Y/N?”

“It was me...”

“What?” He had obviously just woken up, a hand rubbing across his face, barely comprehending what you were saying. You felt a little bad for waking him up...he struggled with sleeping most nights. 

“The Secret Santa...it was me.”

“Oh...” He gestured for you to come in, and you did, taking a place on the end of his bed, hands in your lap before he sat next to you, a hand running through his hair. 

“Thank you. For the gift...it was...you don’t know how much it meant to me, so thank you...” It was obviously hard for him to express himself, he was looking anywhere but at you and you understood how uncomfortable it could be to say how you felt.

“You’re welcome, Bucky...I just wanted you to know that I care.”


End file.
